@boosbuzzsabres
Lookout below!!!
That's the shout that accompanied the Buffalo Sabres as they tumbled down the standings. In looking at their team stats at the end of November, there's no question that they were worthy of their 3-8-3 record and a drop from 3rd overall in the NHL standings to 20th.
Luckily there's plenty of time left in the season to correct some things and special teams needs the most attention. The Sabres powerplay was one goal shy of being completely powerless through November as defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen scored the lone goal on Buffalo's 37 opportunities. At one point very early in the season the Sabres couldn't be stopped and had the league's best powerplay but since then it took a dive to 17th as their conversion rate went from 29.8% at the end of October to 17.8% as of now. And their penalty kill, which wasn't anything to write home about to begin with, took a dive from meh to poor as it went from a 79.5% kill-rate, good for 20th in the league, to 74.7 which dropped them to 29th.
When you look at goal-scoring you'll see a drop to 20th while averaging 2.85 goals/game and you can see the influence of the power(less)play had on that decline as the team scored just as many 5v5 goals this past month (27) as they did in October 27. The Sabres did hurl pucks at the net more frequently (31.1/game as opposed to 30.2) but as last season proved, a "shot mentality" doesn't necessarily equate to goals and wins. One thing that does equate to wins (in addition to scoring goals) is the ability to stop goals and Buffalo wasn't very good at that last month. The Sabres went from allowing a very respectable 2.46 goals-against/game in October to a bloated 3.00 ga/game through November dropping them to 16th-overall in that department.
For a team that prides themselves on possession, they're sure making life difficult on themselves with the NHL's worst faceoff percentage at 46.3%.
The only saving grace for the team was how they finished a rather dismal month. Buffalo went 2-2-2 to close out November and played some of it's best hockey against some of the best teams in their division (save for the third period at Tampa Bay.) Perhaps they hit bottom and are on their way up.
We shall see.
^^^^^^^^^^
One more note:
On this day 1969 the NHL granted franchises to Vancouver and Buffalo. In celebration of that December 2nd event that occured 50 years ago, the Sabres are honoring the founding of the franchise with Founder's Night tonight prior to their game against the New Jersey Devils.
Buffalo Sabres 2018-19 Team Stats (League Rankings)...(Leader):
Wins
--October: 9 (T-1st)
--November: 12 (T-20th)...(BOS, WSH, 19)
--2018-19: 33 (26th)...(TBL 62)
--2017-18: 25 (31st)...(TBL, 54)
--2016-17: 33 (25th)...(WSH, 55)
--2015-16: 35 (23rd)...(WSH, 56)
--2014-15: 23 (30th)...(ANA, 49)
--2013-14: 21 (30th)...(BOS, 54)
Atlantic Division Standing
--October: 2nd...(BOS)
--November: 4th...(BOS)
--2018-19: 6th...(TBL)
--2017-18: 8th...(TBL)
--2016-17: 8th...(MTL)
--2015-16: 7th...(FLA)
--2014-15: 8th...(MTL)
--2013-14: 8th...(BOS)
Eastern Conference Standing
--October: 3rd...(WSH)
--November: 10th...(BOS)
--2018-19: 13th...(TBL)
--2017-18: 16th...(TBL)
--2016-17: 15th...(WSH)
--2015-16: 14th...(WSH)
--2014-15: 16th...(NYR)
--2013-14: 16th...(BOS)
League standing/Points
--October: 3rd/20...(WSH/21)
--November: 20th/29...(BOS/43)
--2018-19: 27th/76...(TBL 128)
--2017-18: 31st/62...(NSH/117)
--2016-17: 26th/78...(WSH/118)
--2015-16: 23rd/81...(WSH/120)
--2014-15: 30th/54...(NYR/113)
--2013-15: 30th/52...(BOS/117)
Points Percentage
--October: .769 (2nd)…(BOS .833)
--November: .537 (18th)...(BOS, .796)
--2018-19: .463 (27th)...(TBL .780)
--2017-18: .378 (31st)...(NSH .713)
--2016-17: .476 (26th)...(WSH .720)
--2015-16: .494 (23rd)...(WSH .732)
--2014-15: .329 (30th)...(NYR .689)
--2013-14: .317 (30th)...(BOS .713)
Goal Differential
--October: +11 (6th)…(VAN, +17)
--November: -4 (20th)...(BOS, +34)
--2018-19: -45 (26th)...(TBL +103)
--2017-18: -81 (31st)...(TBL, +60)
--2016-17: -36 (24th)...(WSH, +81)
--2015-16: -21 (20th)...(WSH, +59)
--2014-15 -113 (30th)...(NYR, +60)
--2013-14: -91 (30th)...(BOS, +84)
Goals/Game
--October: 3.31 (11th)…(NSH, 4.08)
--November: 2.85 (20th)...(COL, 3.73)
--2018-19: 2.70 (23rd)...(TBL 3.89)
--2017-18: 2.41 (31st)...(TBL, 3.54)
--2016-17: 2.43 (24th)...(PIT, 3.39)
--2015-16: 2.43 (25th)...(DAL, 3.23)
--2014-15: 1.87 (30th)...(TBL, 3.16)
--2013-14: 1.83 (30th)...(ANA, 3.21)
Shots/Game
--October: 30.2 (23rd)…(LAK, 36.2)
--November: 31.1 (17th)...(MTL, 35)
--2018-19: 32.9 (8th)...(CAR 34.4)
--2017-18: 31.2 (20th)...(FLA, 34.4)
--2016-17: 30.4 (15th)...(PIT, 33.5)
--2015-16: 29.5 (17th)...(PIT, 33.2)
--2014-15: 24.2 (30th)...(CHI, 33.9)
--2013-14: 26.3 (30th)...(SJS, 34.8)
5v5 Goals
--October: 27 (13th)…(NSH, 37)
--November: 54 (T-10th)...(COL, 68)
--2018-19: 154 (21st)...(TOR 206)
--2017-18: 119 (31st)...(TBL, 196)
--2016-17: 126 (28th)...(MIN, 187)
--2015-16: 121 (28th)...(DAL, 167)
--2014-15: 110 (29th)...(TBL, 181)
--2013-14: 96 (30th)...(ANA, 190)
Powerplay
--October: 29.8% (2nd)…(BOS, 30.9)
--November: 17.8 (17th)...(EDM, 32.5)
--2018-19: 19.5% (16th)...(TBL 28.2)
--2017-18: 19.1 (20th)...(PIT, 26.2)
--2016-17: 24.5 (1st)
--2015-16: 18.9 (12th)...(ANA, 23.1)
--2014-15: 13.4 (30th)...(WSH, 25.3)
--2013-14: 14.1 (29th)...(PIT, 23.4)
Goals-against/Game
--October: 2.46 (6th)…(BOS, 2.00)
--November: 3.00 (T-16th)...(BOS, 2.26)
--2018-19: 3.27 (24th)...(NYI 2.33)
--2017-18: 3.39 (29th)...(LAK, 2.46)
--2016-17: 2.82 (19th)...(WSH, 2.16)
--2015-16: 2.62 (15th)...(ANA, 2.29)
--2014-15: 3.28 (29th)...(MTL, 2.24)
--2013-14: 2.96 (25th)...(LAK, 2.05)
Shots against/Game
--October: 33.5 (26th)…(PHI, 28.3)
--November: 32.3 (22nd)...(LAK, 28.4)
--2018-19: 33 (23rd)...(CGY 28.1)
--2017-18: 32.7 (23rd)...(CAR, 28.9)
--2016-17: 34.3 (30th)...(LAK, 25.9)
--2015-16: 30.6 (22nd)...(NSH, 27.3)
--2014-15: 35.6 (30th)...(LAK, 27.0)
--2013-14: 34.3 (28th)...(NJD, 25.5)
Penalty Kill
--October: 79.5% (20th)…(SJS, 90.4)
--November: 74.7 (29th)...(SJS, 91)
--2018-19: 80.9% (12th)...(TBL 85.0)
--2017-18: 77.9 (22nd)...(LAK, 85.0)
--2016-17: 77.6 (25th)...(BOS, 85.7)
--2015-16: 82.6 (9th)...(ANA, 87.2)
--2014-15: 75.1 (30th)...(MIN, 86.3)
--2013-14: 81.4 (20th)...(NJD, 86.4)
Faceoff Percentage
--October: 47.8 (25th)…(PHI, 57.6)
--November: 46.3 (31st)...(PHI, 53.9)
--2018-19: 47.9 (T-27th)...(PHI 54.7)
--2017-18: 51.5 (7th)...(CAR, 54.1)
--2016-17: 49.6 (17th)...(ANA, 54.7)
--2015-16: 49.4 (21st)...(ARI, 54.7)
--2014-15: 44.9 (30th)...(BOS, 53.6)
--2013-14: 46.8 (29th)...(NSH, 53.1)
Join the Discussion:
»